Chapter 6

Nonlinear Components

-Nonlinear designs are those that differ significantly from the line-by-line layout of paragraphs.

1. Nonlinear design allows readers to more easily find information than a continuous text allows
2. The relations among the textual elements call for a schematic rather than a line by line expression

-Nonlinear designs often include:

• tables
• flowcharts
• organizational charts
• decision trees
• concept charts

*Nonlinear reveals information, rather than writing out an explanation of the information

Vocabulary of Nonlinear Components

• Textual elements: text is divided into fragments and distributed across the field. Lines, arrows or boxes often connect the text. Usually simple text and font are used, and then enhanced by the surrounding space.
• Spatial elements: strings, matrices, and branching displays are the three spacial systems that nonlinear uses.

-strings create statements through one-directional tracks of text units, arranged vertically or horizontally

-matrix organizes text both vertically and horizontally at the same time

-branching displays structure text into hierarchical layers

*these 3 spacial systems provide the building blocks for a variety of conventional genres that are used in nonlinear design (listed above)

• Graphic elements: are used as framing devices, further isolating text into discrete units

Chapter 5 Questions

1.

a.) headings, lists, columns, field grid, bullets, line work, shading

b.) I think version 1 is more effective. I think the columns, bullets, and bolding makes the most difference.

c.) I think version 1 is also more effective in regards to the warnings because the black boxes stand out more in the column format. If the warnings are not emphasized properly it could lead to harm to the reader.

d.) I think version 1 has better clarity. There is a better contrast between the wording and background, the headings are a little bigger, and the bullets help to make it easier to read. Someone in the cold would want to be able to quickly read the directions so they can get back to the warm.

e.) No

f.) I think version 1 builds the best ethos because the warnings and tips are more emphasized, thus giving the reader the feeling that the instructions are really in their best interest.

2.

Grand opening!

Joan's Tea Garden and Craft Emporium.

You're invited to celebrate the grand opening of Joan's Tea Garden and Craft Emporium. Come browse among the tables of potpourri, the baskets of dried flowers, and the shelves of books and collectibles. Whether you're shopping for a special gift or you enjoy doing your own crafts, you'll love the selection.

Saturday, May 17th, 9-5.

125 South Main.

Free croissants! Free tea! Free potpourri!

4.

a.) check

b.) dot

c.) square

d.) snowflake

e.) dot

My Second Life House

This is me in front of my second life house! It's obviously not perfect, but an ok first attempt.

Chapter 5

Text Fields

What is a field of text?
- a distinguishable area of visual interest or attention

• paragraphs, lists, or chunks of text
• menus, navigational bars, pop-up ads

- a field can be a physical page or on a computer screen, and can be divided into sections
- visual cues can make a field better

• Textual: headings, numbers, letters
• Spatial: paragraph blocks, lists, columns
• Graphic: bullets, shading, lines

- fields must respond to the rhetorical situation


Vocabulary of Text Fields

• Textual Elements

1. Headings: allow for readers to navigate the page to find what they are looking for
2. Web links: function like footnotes, give readers additional information if desired on a separate page (doesn't clutter the field)
3. Numbers and Letters: allow for lists that show parallel items, signal the beginning of an article, help organize text hierarchically

• Spatial Elements

1. Lists: break up the text to make it more accessible and add emphasis
2. Leading: spacing between lines
3. Justified/unjustified: usually justified to right margin so the text is not jagged
4. Columns: usually one column is used, but multiple columns can allow the information to be read more quickly, and offers different design options
5. Field grids: multiple columns, text boxes, image spaces, etc...more options for design

• Graphic Elements

1. Bullets and other highlighting cues: used for points of emphasis
2. Line work: thick or thin, dashed, used to segment and accent text
3. Shading: shows range of gray-scale, changes the figure-ground contrast

Applying the Cognate Strategies

Arrangement: the size and orientation of a given surface

Arrangement stragegies:

• headers
• web links
• lists
• columns
• bullets

Emphasis: draw readers' attention to key elements within a visual field

Emphasis strategies:

• enlarging selected pieces of text
• initial letters
• lists
• headings
• shading

Clarity: enables readers to glide effortlessly through the text

Clarity stragegies:

• headings
• line length
• line breaks
• justified text
• follow a visual pattern and be consistent

Conciseness: only putting necessary information on your page or screen

Conciseness strategies:

• pattern of headings
• width of columns

Tone: is your text formal, informal, serious, playful, authoritative, low-key?

Tone strategies:

• letters, numbers
• serif vs. san serif
• justified
• bold

Ethos: how professional does the document look?

Chapter 4 Questions

1a.)

• Only 2 of the danger warnings use sans serif, while the other 5 use serif fonts.
• All of these danger warnings have a similar type size
• 2 of the danger warnings use punctuation, while only 1 uses background shading
• 1 of the warnings uses bold, 1 uses italics (not effective), and one has a shadow

1b.) I think the bold and capitalized warnings seem more credible because danger normally signifies that it needs to be noticed so people don't get hurt. The italic and light-colored warnings seem less credible to me because they do not give the tone of a warning and as being important to be noticed. I think the bold and capitals make the warning most clear. Emphasis like italics is not effective for this warning. I think the most legible versions are most likely to catch someone's eye that there is actually danger and they need to be careful. The ones that are just trying to look pretty, don't give the same clarity of what the sign is saying.

2. Kathy’s Klip Korner Looks feminine, uppercase and script make it look formal, giving ethos that it is professional

Custom Car Stereos

Grover's Donuts & Rolls

3a.)

1. formal, serious, technical, tentative, friendly
2. informal, relaxed, nontechnical, tentative, friendly
3. formal, serious, technical, authoritative, unfriendly
4. informal, relaxed, nontechnical, tentative, friendly

3b.) I think #1 is best for the rhetorical situation. It is straight forward and friendly, yet still formal showing its importance. I feel the rhetorical situation is a necessary meeting, yet something that isn't something to stress about. If the meeting is very strict then the all caps version might be better. If it is just a friendly, and optional reminder about a meeting then option 2 might be more appropriate. I don't really see option 4 having the right tone for a meeting of any kind.

4a.) On the Apple site, most of the text is in the same font. However some is in caps, some are bold, and the size of the text differs. All of the text is in a sans serif font.

5.)

1. double space between 'plot' and 'used'
2. first TM is not small
3. average yields should not be italicized
4. the dash between follow and up is too long
5. the comma the beginning of the last line should be at the end of the previous line
6. there is a space between the last word and the period
7. results is not captilized
8. the first Circle 200 has no space between TM, the second does
9. the period after the first Circle 200 looks weird
10. part of above is italicized

Chapter 4

Linear Components

-The most basic elements of text design

-letters

-words

-numbers

*give important rhetorical effects even though they seem insignificant

2 important things to remember:

1. Because readers process text one piece at a time, even small portions have value

2. Linear components have a cumulative effect on the visual language of the document.

Textual, spatial and graphic coding modes are important for defining linear components.

· Textual: intra-level, include visual qualities of the typeface (shape, size, italics, uppercase, shadow, etc.)

o What to look for when identifying typeface:

§ Serifs

§ X-height

§ Width

§ Line quality

· Spatial: direction of text

o What to look for:

§ Horizontal spacing between characters and words

§ Vertical spacing between characters and words

§ Special treatment

· Graphic: small lines, marks, and other cues

o What to look for:

§ Punctuation marks

§ Line work and shading

§ Iconic letter forms (letters that look like the subject matter (ice, wood, etc))

Synergy of the Coding Modes: all 3 coding modes work together to create the design

Applying the Cognate Strategies

-Arrangement: relationship between groups of text, individual words, phrases, and chunks of text

-Emphasis: varying typeface, figure-ground contrast, bold, italic, caps

-Clarity: the ease with which readers can pick up information in the text (type style, size, upper/lowercase, bold, italic)

-Conciseness: eliminates unnecessary decoration

-Tone: changes the intensity of the typefaces

-Ethos: reflect the credibility or character of the writer/designer

**All of these cognate strategies are interdependent on one another.

Chapter 3 Questions

1. Analytical Chart

1. 10pt font
2. normal spacing
3. commas, parenthesis, percents, dollar signs
4. bold headers, 12pt font
5. lists, left allignment
6. boxed sections, greyscale in charts
7. numerical labels on bar graph, percents on pie chart, legends
8. small charts, headings in bold
9. greyscale in charts
10. no page numbers
11. 81/2 X 11 paper, portrait orientation
12. printed on both sides, framing around page

2.

a.) 12 pt font, left alligned, captial letters

b.) The letter is clear and to the point. The bold letters make the tone a little abrupt. Visually the letter is easy to read though, but there is little emphasis on any particular part of the letter.

c.) It makes the letter to the point, without adding any extra details. Making in not all caps would make the letter seem more friendly, though.

3.

a.) This newsletter doesn't have any charts. The logo is at the top of the letter.

b.) They help make the tone, welcoming and establish ethos.

c.) Putting more charts or pictures would probably have helped the newletter be more appealing and respond to the rhetorical situation better.

4.

a.) It is smaller than 81/2 x 11, and has double spacing. It is portrait orientation and the cover page is centered. The binding is just with staples.

b.) The cover is simple, but arranged well. The tone is welcoming, and ethos is established through the logo.

c.) It could be more creative to make readers more intersting, but in general it responds to the rhetorical situation.

Tessie Turquoise

This is me!

Second Life

I find Second Life really confusing and hard to use. I think this might just be because I have no experience using any sort of game like this whatsoever. As I tried it more, it did get a little easier, though.

I kind of figured out how to edit my appearance, but I don't know where to go to find better clothes. I also can't figure out how to change my hair.

I am still excited about this project, but its frustrating that even the first steps, most definitely the easiest, are still really hard for me. Hopefully I will figure it out better soon.

Chapter 3

Visual Analysis

Analysis is helpful in designing communications because it helps you evaluate your progress and determine if you are responding to the rhetorical situation.

When analyzing professional communications you have to know how to:

• Notice what is going on visually
• Learn how to categorize it

A Taxonomy for Visual Vocabulary

There are 4 levels of design for analyzing visual language:

1. Intra
2. Inter
3. Extra
4. Supra

-Intra and Inter deal with text design

-Extra with nontextual elements, like pictures

-Supra with large scale design of the whole communication

And within each of these levels there are 3 coding modes:

1. Textual
2. Spatial
3. Graphic

*In the chart below are details of the levels and coding modes.

The levels and coding modes are all ways in which to describe the visual vocabulary of a communication.

*Each communication is unique, and the chart above would be filled out differently for each different communication

Analyzing Visual Vocabulary Rhetorically

Analyzing a document rhetorically means finding the answer to the question: how well does the visual vocabulary of this communication match its audience, purpose and context?

-Any level can help develop the cognate strategies (arrangement, emphasis, clarity, conciseness, tone or ethos).

*Visual elements that do no rhetorical work are unnecessary and should be edited, revised, or removed.

Chapter 2 Questions

1. B is the image whose top and bottom have been flipped. And C is the image that has then been rotated counterclockwise 90 degrees.

2. The bold face helps the figure-ground contrast because black is thicker and stands out more from the white background. The italic letters appear to be thinner than the plain text, making the figure-ground contrast less.

3.

a.) The text still is very clear, despite the blue background. Because it is a dark blue and the lettering is white, there is still a good figure-ground contrast. The background color does not add very much noise.

b.) While I don't feel the color has an advantage for the rhetorical situation, I don't reel it adds distracting noise. I think the color makes the tone of the book more friendly, and the blue background coordinates with the image in the center of the page adding emphasis.

c.) I think that the figure-ground contrast still stands out despite the fact that the background is blue. I think the trade-off is fine because the book looks organized with the color scheme that is used.

4.

a.) On the Clemson homepage, the links that relate to one another are in the same font, size and color, with only a slight vertical line separating them. Many of the links remain the same and in the same spot no matter what screen of the website you are on.

b.) This website puts similar links together. For example the links to go to for students, prospective students, faculty are all in a row. At the top of the page the links for the home page, the site index, etc. are in a row and reappear on every page. The feature stories on the homepage have a header and also a brief statement describing the story.

c.) The website uses lines and shades of color mostly to separate the different groups of links. the space and direction the related links go (horizontal or vertical) is also a way they are separated.

d.) These patterns help because it makes the site easy to navigate. Viewers are always able to find their way back to the home page. The grouping also makes it easier to see where a certain category would be located on the page.

5. The document displays figure ground contrast relatively well. I think the main heading could be a little more clear if the words had a thin black outline to make them contrast the grey background more. I think the grouping works pretty well with a column layout and bold headings with each category. By using these 2 principles, the document is easy for the audience to read and follow. There is little noise, making the document clear, and the headings help to mark what each short paragraph will discuss.

6. In newsletters I think the type, color, and location of the logo on the document distinguish them. Having a bold or bright color makes the headings stand out, yet too much graphic design makes the heading look cluttered.